Miami Hurricanes to play Louisville in Russell Athletic Bowl

CORAL GABLES – Miami won’t have to travel far to get back to the postseason — just 240 miles north.

A source told the Post Sunday afternoon that the Hurricanes (9-3, 5-3 in the ACC) will face Louisville in the Russell Athletic Bowl at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. The game will kick off at 6:45 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 28 and will be televised on ESPN. The schools confirmed the news that evening.

“We’re excited to play so close to home and look forward to Hurricanes fans painting Orlando orange and green,” Miami Athletic Director Blake James said in a statement.

Miami’s last bowl appearance was the Dec. 2010 Sun Bowl in El Paso, in which it lost 33-17 to Notre Dame. After that, the Hurricanes spent two years on postseason hiatus, self-imposing bowl bans once a since-resolved NCAA investigation into improper benefits came to light in Aug. 2011.

Louisville (11-1, 7-1 in the American Athletic Conference) scored a decisive 33-23 win over Florida in last year’s Sugar Bowl and appeared in position to return to a BCS bowl this year. The Cardinals were ranked as high as No. 7 in the Associated Press poll this season and appeared a lock for the AAC title. Those hopes crashed on Oct. 18, when they lost 38-35 at home to UCF.

Of the many storylines in the game, none is more enticing than Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and several of his teammates facing their hometown school.

The backstory: Bridgewater, a junior and one of the top overall prospects for the upcoming NFL draft, was hotly recruited by the Hurricanes out of Miami Northwestern High. He gave his verbal commitment to UM in June 2010, but backed out after coach Randy Shannon was fired several months later. Incoming coach Al Golden, now in his third season, couldn’t change Bridgewater’s mind.

Bridgewater became Northwestern’s starting quarterback in 2008 after Jacory Harris graduated and signed with UM (along with several classmates). In addition to Bridgewater, who threw for 3,523 yards and 28 touchdowns this season, Louisville’s Eli Rogers, Michaelee Harris, Corvin Lamb and Jermaine Reve played at Northwestern. Fifteen players on the Cardinals’ roster hail from Miami, with 26 from South Florida.

Miami freshman cornerback Artie Burns is the only Northwestern grad currently on UM’s roster, which includes 39 South Florida players.

On Saturday, before his team’s bowl destination was known, quarterback StephenMorris and several teammates said they’d be excited about the possible matchup.

“It would be a great game,” said Morris, a Miami-Monsignor Pace grad who said he knows Bridgewater from high school all-star games. “Obviously, Louisville is a great program. Teddy’s a great quarterback as well. I think it’d be a big opportunity for two Miami kids to shine on the big stage.”

Junior linebacker Denzel Perryman, from Coral Gables High, said Bridgewater is “exactly” the same player he faced twice in high school.

“He’s explosive. He’s pretty good,” Perryman said. “It would be a great matchup.”

Speaking on a conference call Sunday evening, Louisville coach Charlie Strong said the number of South Florida players in the game was one of the many selling points. Strong spent three stints as an assistant coach at Florida, most recently from 2002 to 2009.

“Playing a quality opponent in Miami is great for us,” Strong said. “We recruit that area heavily … It’s great for our program, when you talk about [Miami’s] tradition. … We’re trying to get to where Miami is at, when you talk about all the national titles.”

Strong’s defensive line coach, Clint Hurtt, is a former Hurricanes assistant who in October given a two-year “show cause” NCAA penalty for his misdeeds while a UM assistant from 2006 to 2009.

Another notable coaching connection between the teams: Howard Schnellenberger, who turned around the fortunes of Miami (1979 to 1983) and Louisville (1985 to 1994). U of L’s football complex bears his name, as does the national coach of the year award he won while leading the Hurricanes their first national championship in 1983.

As far as the on-field matchup: It will be a pairing of two potent offenses, but the defenses are a different story.

UM ranks 24th in the country in points scored, while Louisville is 29th. But the Cardinals allow the nation’s third-fewest points (12.4) while the Hurricanes have given up more than double that. Miami is 77th overall in yards allowed, while Louisville is second.

Louisville, which joins the ACC next season, is scheduled to host the Hurricanes next fall. The Hurricanes and Cardinals are the only two teams scheduled for both a bowl and a 2014 regular-season game.

Louisville Athletic Director Tom Jurich called the bowl “a jump-start on the ACC” for his program.

In its current lineup, the ACC sent an NCAA-record 11 teams to bowl games, including national title contender Florida State.

Miami is 9-1-1 against Louisville in a series that began in 1933. The teams last met in 2006, when No. 12 Louisville beat No. 15 Miami 31-7 at home. That game knocked the Hurricanes out of the AP poll, beginning an unranked stretch of more than two and a half years.

It’ll be Miami’s fourth appearance in the game now known as the Russell Athletic Bowl. Miami’s first two appearances were in Miami Gardens – a 31-21 win over Virginia in the 1996 Carquest Bowl and a 46-23 win over NC State in the 1998 MicronPC Bowl. Miami’s last trip to Orlando was for the 2009 Champs Sports Bowl – a 20-14 loss to Wisconsin.

The Citrus Bowl, which has hosted high school state championships since 2007, holds 70,229. Last year’s game, in which Virginia Tech beat Rutgers 13-10 in overtime, drew 48,129 fans to the stadium. It also drew 3.9 million viewers on ESPN.

Louisville, which will be the home team in the game, and Miami will each be paid a reported $2.375 million for their participation. The lowest ticket price Sunday evening on RussellAthleticBowl.com was $35.